Set in the jungles of Madhya Pradesh, Sherni (Tigress) by Amit Masurkar is a strong, feminist thriller that observes the destructive impact of toxic masculinity in the environment versus development debate. Patriarchy suppresses women per se, but if a woman does a good job, it shows up the bad/useless/insecure guys for what they are, so she will have hell to pay. We see this everywhere. The film dropped on Amazon Prime Video on Friday.

Vidya Balan is a Bollywood game changer as Vidya Vincent, a committed Divisional Forest Officer posted in Balaghat, Madhya Pradesh, committed to saving both tigers and humans in the man-versus-tiger conflict zones. She is overlooked and elbowed out by various macho, corrupt and cowardly men in different positions of power—her cowardly boss Bansal (Brijendra Kala), the macho tiger killer Pintu Bhaiya (Sharat Saxena), her suave forest officer superior, the political goons. Sherni goes further from where Masurkar’s Newton, also set in central Indian jungles at election time, left off. It features two shernis: Balan herself is a sherni, trying to save the four-legged sherni. Both shernis go about their work silently, avoid showdowns, and rarely need to roar, yet their very nature puts them in danger of losing the battle. We see the quiet majesty of both. Most of the men, whose jobs are primarily to save the tiger, quickly do the opposite: kill the tiger, here T12, at the behest of political goons at election time, after the tiger kills humans. The woman is the nurturer, taking the long term view, keen to save the lives of both tigers and humans. Both shernis become targets of toxic patriarchy.